Dandelion Wine is a semiautobiographical novel set in the summer of '28 in Green Town, IL—a pseudonym for Bradbury's childhood home, Waukegan. It developed from the short story "Dandelion Wine" appearing in the 6/53 issue of Gourmet magazine. The main character of the story is Douglas Spaulding, a 12-year-old boy. Most of the book is focused upon the routines of small-town America & the simple joys of yesteryear.1 Douglas wakes early on the 1st day of summer & performs a series of actions that coincide with the lightening of the sky & awakening of the town. He does this in such a way that implies magic, setting the basis for collections of life events tinged with fantasy.2 Douglas goes with 10-year-old brother Tom & their father to pick grapes. While Tom & his father act like the day is ordinary, Douglas senses an inexplicable presence. Douglas suddenly realizes what it is: the revelation he's alive.3 Dandelion wine is bottled for the winter of illnesses & wheezing: "Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught & stoppered."4-5 Douglas discovers his feet won't move as fast as other boys' as his sneakers are worn out. He becomes entranced by a pair of brand-new Cream-Sponge Para Litefoot Shoes in a shop window, & thinks on how the need for a pair of sneakers is something only boys understand when his father argues against buying another. The local shoe seller, Sanderson, is resistant to selling the sneakers to Douglas, since he doesn't have enough money to pay for them. Douglas convinces him to try on a pair of his own sneakers, which triggers memories in Sanderson of when he was a kid. He agrees to let Douglas have the sneakers in return for work to pay off the bill.6 Douglas shows Tom a tablet of 2 parts for recording his summer: "Rites & Ceremonies" & "Discoveries & Revelations."7 A ritual is accomplished with the setting up of the porch swing as a place for night-long conversation. Douglas comments on how sitting in the porch swing feels right because one would always be comforted by the droning voices of adults. 8-9 Leo Auffmann, listening to elderly people's fatalistic conversations, insists they shouldn't dwell on misery. Douglas & his grandfather, passing by, suggest that Leo should make a Happiness Machine. After the conversing people laugh at this idea, Leo determines to do just that.10 Tom rund to Mrs. Singer's store to get ice cream at 9PM on the same night for him & Douglas. By 9:30, Douglas hasn't returned. This causes his worried mother to venture to the ravine with Tom. Tom feels safe because he's holding her hand & because he's little understanding of Death. His sense of security, however, vanishes when he feels her hand tremble & realizes she's afraid. The ensuing revelation that apparently unfazed grown-ups feel loneliness & pain too unnerves him & makes him aware of the darkness. Just before being overwhelmed, Douglas & his friends return, breaking the spell.11 Leo sits with his wife Lena on the porch in the night. Lena tells him they don't need a Happiness Machine, but Leo says that he's going to build the Machine for others that would cure all melancholy. He's greeted with silence.12 Douglas' grandfather begins the day, happily reveling in the sound of the lawn mower, an indicator that summer has begun. Grandma, however, tells him that Forrester, the man cutting their grass, is planning to plant new grass that will only grow to a certain height, thus eliminating mowers. Horrified, Grandpa gives Bill a lecture on how little things can matter more than big ones, especially to experienced people like him. Bill attempts to change his mind, but only convinces Grandpa further of his position when he learns the new grass will kill dandelions. Grandpa finally pays Bill the cost of the grass flats in return for him not installing them. He takes a nap & wakes in the afternoon to find Bill cutting the lawn again.13 Leo, obsessed with the Happiness Machine, asks Lena if she's "pleased, contented, joyful." Lena gives a sarcastic reply which offends him. They get into an argument. The squabble ends only when Lena realizes that she's burned their dinner. Leo then spends weeks toiling in his garage to build his Machine. His family disintegrates, but he's too busy with his invention to pay attention to his wife's warnings. At last, Leo completes it. The Machine turns out to cause misery instead of the expected bliss, causing both Saul, his son, & Lena to weep after sitting in it. Lena explains to him that a Happiness Machine cannot be built for humans because it would only give them everything they wanted all the time & produce no fulfillment. Leo, still disbelieving, decides to take a test run in it himself. Just as he's about to do so, the Machine catches fire. After the incident, Leo comments to Douglas & his father that he's been a fool because the real Happiness Machine has been right in front of him all along. He shows them his newfound Happiness Machine in perfect order—his family.14 As the Spaulding family prepares to shake out rugs, Douglas & Tom's imaginations turn this chore into a magical discovery, fancying that they see the happenings & neighbors in their town in the stains of one rug.15-16 72 year old Mrs Bentley, who saves memorabilia, finds her beliefs challenged by two girls named Alice & Jane, who meet her along with Tom & don't believe her when she says that she was young like them once. Claiming she's lying, they run away, leaving her infuriated. The next time they meet, Bentley shows them some of her relics, including a photo of her as a child. Alice & Jane say that the objects don't prove anything. She could've got them from another girl. Bentley's insistence that they'll one day be old like her fails to unnerve them. They run away with her stolen possessions, further shaking Bentley's confidence in the authenticity of her childhood. As she sifts thru her memorabilia, she hears the voice of her husband speaking to her, explaining that the items don't really belong to her because they came from the past, not from the present she is living in. Even affidavits wouldn't change the fact that she's no longer the self that the saved clothes & pictures were meant for. She understands & discards the tokens of her past the next day with help from the girls & Tom.17-18 Douglas & Tom are introduced to a living Time Machine in the form of Col. Freeleigh who narrates vivid descriptions of his personal experiences, including a fatal bullet trick performed by Ching Ling Soo, being on the prairie with Pawnee Bill & witnessing the battle of Ft Sumter. His anecdotes draw the boys themselves into the events.19 Two elderly women, Miss Fern & Miss Roberts, take refuge in their attic after they accidentally run over Mr Quartermain while riding the Green Machine, believing him to be dead. Huddling together, they recall when they bought the Green Machine from a salesman as a noiseless, smooth form of transportation. The 1st week on the Green Machine went by like a dream, until the accident with Quartermain. They lament how they didn't get help for him, then resolve to not drive the Green Machine again. Later they learn Quartermain didn't die.20 Douglas is horrified to find out that yet another form of summer transportation is about to be gone; the trolley run by Mr. Tridden, which will be replaced by a bus. Tridden offers them a free ride, & Douglas, Tom & their friend Charlie take it. During the ride, they comment on how a bus cannot emulate the feel & smell of a trolley, further emphasized by use of gorgeous imagery to describe the sights. 21-22 Douglas' best friend John Huff is described as the ideal boy to be friends with. John, however, tells Douglas that his family will move tomorrow. In response to Douglas' protests, John comments on how he's realized he's taken so many things for granted in his neighborhood that he can't remember most of them, including his parents' faces & on how he's afraid that Douglas will similarly forget him. Douglas assures him he's a perfect memory of his face, but can't remember that John's eyes are green. Douglas attempts to enjoy his last day with John, but keeps on being reminded of the diminishing amount of time before departure. After he realizes John's gone for good, Douglas, thinking of how statues stay still compared to humans who can't be controlled, yells out that he hates John.23-24 Elmira Brown, a high-strung woman, believes that Clara Goodwater, rival for the position of president for the Honeysuckle Ladies Lodge, is a witch causing her numerous accidents. Elmira accuses Clara of performing magic on her to sabotage her chances in the election, using information from her mailman husband about a stack of books of spells that was sent to her house. Clara says the books are for her younger cousin & claims that Elmira's accidents are caused by her own clumsiness. Unconvinced, Elmira brews a potion for herself to counter Clara's magic & brings Tom with her to the ladies' meeting as a charm. The potion, however, doesn't stop her from continuing to knock things over & she begins to feel strange as she talks on the platform. Elmira loses the election yet again to Clara, who then draws from her purse a voodoo doll with tacks embedded in it. A dazed Elmira asks Tom to show her the way to the restroom, but she makes a wrong turn & tumbles down stairs. Miraculously, she's no broken bones. Clara apologizes & offers a 2nd vote to elect her president.25-26 Col. Freeleigh has been confined to hospital. His sole comfort is a phone in his room he can use to dial the number of an old friend in Mexico City who lays his phone on an open window to allow him to hear the bustle outside. When the nurse learns of his calls, she tells him that she'll take the phone away to prevent him from overworking his heart. A desperate Freeleigh, feeling his pains worsen, dials his friend's number once more, begging for one last listening. As his friend does so, Freeleigh immerses himself in Mexico City, thinking of how grateful he is for this reminder that the world is still alive. When Douglas & other children stop by for a visit, they find Freeleigh dead, holding the phone. Douglas listens to the phone in time to hear "2000 miles away, the closing of a window."27 July has ended. 31 bottles of dandelion wine have been made. Douglas, remembering his recent string of losses, wonders why each bottle looks identical & not representative of the day it was made. He says that August will be uneventful, to which his grandfather attempts to remedy his melancholy with a swig of wine & some ordered exercises.28-29 Bill Forrester, Douglas at his side, orders lime-vanilla ice at the soda fountain. His request catches the attention of 95 year old Helen Loomis who invites him to visit her house. Bill complies. He & Helen start a conversation about the appearances people keep up, that soon diverges into Loomis acting as a Time Machine similar to Freeleigh to transport Bill to the pyramids of Egypt. Bill comments on how comfortable he feels with her. Helen replies by reminding him she's an old woman. While lounging in his chair, Bill attempts to envision her as being young again; he succeeds for a moment in seeing "the swan," which he says out loud, disquieting Helen. Bill continues to visit Helen daily for over 2 weeks. On the last day he tells her what motivated him to visit her in the 1st place: a photograph taken of her at 20. He'd seen the picture in the paper for the town ball & intended to go to seek the beautiful girl it showed, until someone told him the picture had been taken long ago & had been used since to advertise the ball. Helen replies with an overview of a young man she knew in her youth who was handsome but reckless; he left her, but when she saw Bill at the fountain, she was reminded of him. Some time later, Bill finds Helen writing a letter addressed to him. Helen explains to him she'll be dead in a few days. The letter will come to him then. When Bill attempts to protest about the lack of time they've had together, Helen says she believes they'll meet again sometime later—possibly reincarnated. Bill receives the letter. Inside is a note: "A dish of lime-vanilla ice."30-31 Lavinia Nebb goes to the movies with friends, however the town is in an uproar over the appearance of a serial killer called the Lonely One. In the expository chapter, it is revealed in the conversation between Doug, Tom & Charlie that Lavinia killed the Lonely One by stabbing him with a pair of scissors. Charlie berates Lavinia for killing off their main source of thrills, but Tom convinces him that the actual Lonely One is still alive because the man they took in looked like "a plain, everyday man who wouldn't pull the wings off even so much as a fly," instead of the tall, bulgy-eyed monster he should look like. Neither of them listen to Douglas who says he was at the ravine at the time & witnessed Lavinia discovering Elizabeth's body & thus can no longer treat the Lonely One as just an amusingly scary figure.32 Douglas' great-grandma, after years of assisting her family, feels her time is expiring. She lies down in bed amidst the protests of relatives, waiting for death. When Douglas asks her who's going to do all the chores she did, she says they'll belong to anyone who wants them & reminds him that she'll not truly be dead in his mind. As her family leaves her to rest, she returns back to the dream she was in before she was born, dying peacefully.33 Disillusioned by recent losses, Douglas, by the light of many fireflies, writes on the shortcomings of things & people, associating them mainly with breaking down or death. He seems to be on the verge of revelation as he quickly scribbles at the end a summary of the dark side of his summer experience. The fireflies' light goes out. Douglas stops writing & releases the fireflies. He tries to fall asleep.34 Douglas takes Tom to an arcade to show the mechanical Tarot Witch. Tom asks why he wanted him to see her. Douglas says he asks too many questions. He then thinks to himself that it's because he was elated when he realized he was alive, before he realized that being alive meant he must die. No longer certain about life, he wants to take comfort in something he knows never will go away, the carnival amusements. Douglas gets a typical fortune from the Witch. The card given Tom is blank. Tom suggests that the Witch might've run out of ink. Douglas insists the blank card must have some meaning. Thinking she might've written a message in invisible ink, Douglas runs a match over it. He accidentally burns it, but says that he read a French message from the Witch, calling for help. He decides she's really a princess trapped in hot wax. Douglas plots to rescue the Witch by overloading a machine with coins so carnival manager Black will use them to get drunk. Black, however, goes crazy & smashes the Witch's glass case. Douglas jumps to stop him. Just as Black is about to attack him, he passes out from drink. Douglas & Tom confiscate the Witch, planning to free her. As they reach the ravine, Black appears & flings the Witch in. Later on in the day, Douglas & Tom return to where the Witch is lying. Douglas says to Tom that the Witch is alive. Someday he'll be able to free her with magic spells so she'll become just another figurine. As he mentions their fortunes, another blank card falls from her sleeve. Douglas exclaims it must be thanks & a prediction they'll live forever.35 Douglas comes upon Tom who is counting the times cicadas buzz to measure temperature. Douglas sees the thermometer reads 87°F, but Tom, after finishing his count, says it's 92° Spaulding. Douglas begins subconsciously counting cicada buzzes.36-38 This story is about Mr Jonas & his wagon full of discards that he totes around town in the morning, allowing people to take what they need from it at no cost; many of them donating some of their old items to the wagon before it moves on. On a hot morning, cicadas buzzing louder than normal, Douglas lies in his bed, feverish. Tom & his mother fail to cool him down. In his fever, Douglas has hallucinations of long-lost people & machines passing, including Tridden & his trolley, Fern & Roberts on their Green Machine, & Col. Freeleigh popping up like a clock, all waving good-bye to him, which makes him cry aloud. At 4PM, Tom tells Jonas about Douglas' condition & says he's afraid he'll die. Jonas gives him a set of wind-chimes to hang by Douglas' window, but they don't sound because there's no wind. Jonas visits the Spaulding residence to see Douglas at 7:30, but Douglas' mother says he isn't to be disturbed. By nightfall, Douglas is no better. His family takes him outside in a cot, hoping he'll be cooled by wind. Finally, at 12:30, Jonas makes a stop with his wagon where Douglas is sleeping & leaves him bottles filled with air containing soothing vapor from tropics, on the condition that he pass this favor on to someone else. The bottles appear to work. The next morning, the heat & cicadas finally fade with the coming of rain. Douglas is well enough to write in his tablet again.39 Douglas' grandma is renowned in the household for her cooking. Aunt Rose threatens this when she questions Grandma's methods & persuades her to organize her kitchen, wear glasses & read a cookbook. The systematic cooking that results destroys dinners. In response, Grandpa bids Aunt Rose good-bye, but Grandma appears to have lost her touch. While all are awake in their beds, Douglas sneaks down to the kitchen & restores its original chaos, getting rid of the glasses & the cookbook. The family heads downstairs to find that Grandma has reconnected with her cooking & everyone enjoys a magnificent late dinner. The chapter closes with Douglas thinking how he repaid Jonas by passing on his favor.40 A final chapter concludes Douglas' summer, as he & Tom spot school supplies advertised in a shop window. The boys reminisce about events with the aid of the labeled dandelion wine bottles, guaranteeing they'll remember. The Spaulding family stores away their porch swing for autumn, as others reverse their summer preparations as the season draws to an end. The end echoes the beginning, with Douglas performing his waking-up act in reverse, pretending to switch the lights off & put everyone else to sleep before finally going to sleep himself.